Remote maintenance of technical devices, for example in the fields of medicine, industry or also in private households, has become increasingly important. For example, in medical technology, image-producing devices, for example X-ray devices, computer-tomography devices (CT devices), magnetic resonance devices (MR devices), or ultrasound devices, and radiological or clinical information systems, such as (radiology information systems (RIS) or hospital information systems (HIS), are generally operated within a framework of a first maintenance level by technical service personnel assigned to a hospital. The personnel, at the occurrence or use of more targeted or complex problems, make use of the assistance of manufacturers or special service providers via remote maintenance within the framework of higher maintenance levels. Similar maintenance level scenarios are to be found in working areas with a multitude of computer-assisted workstations, in chemical or analytical industrial laboratories with laboratory devices, or in the industrial field in connection with complex processing installations or sequence controls. A multitude of potential technical problems can be related to comparatively simple-to-identify reasons, and can often be repaired comparatively simply. Such problems, for example connecting cables not inserted, lack of printing ink, etc., can mostly be remedied at the site without special knowledge of the devices, by obtaining consumable materials as needed. An identification of more complex problems can also often be provided by unspecialized service technicians at the site, such as where a test routine may be run to exclude potential, but irrelevant, causes of a problem, or for tracing an actual cause.
A system for the remote maintenance of an MR device is known from WO 00/00840, wherein a monitoring parameter is checked via a sensor. The monitoring parameter is a sensor which monitors a function of a cooling system for cooling superconducting MR magnets. Since the magnets constitute a substantial portion of the costs of an MR device, damages from undetected errors in the cooling system may be prevented. Therefore, the values of the monitoring parameters are continuously evaluated and, in case of an erroneous function, a warning message is issued via a telephone modem or a telephone modem cascade. In addition, the monitoring parameter can also be detected via dialing a telephone through the telephone modem, so that a service technician can regularly check the functioning of the cooling system.
A system is known from U.S. Pat. No. 6,621,413, wherein an MR device is also remotely monitored. One or several monitoring parameters of the MR device are continuously detected and automatically evaluated. If the evaluation points to a problem, an error report is deposited in or communicated to a service center. Further, the device which is mobile can be checked or interrogated regarding position information. Moreover, a display of device settings, software updates or telephone numbers is possible or a report is sent in case of problems.
Thus, these known systems allow remote maintenance in such a way that parameter values are collected in the form of monitoring parameters by appropriate sensors and are remotely transmitted. However, for performing checks directly at the device, for example processing of error search tree structures for localizing a problem, the service technician performs prescribed checking acts directly at the device in accordance with service documentation. In accordance with the service documentation, he performs instructions provided by the error search tree structure and makes checks, which lead to the identification of a problem cause through the branches of the search tree structure.